Is It an iPod on Steroids or an iPhone Lite? Either Way, A Cool Gadget

Yes, I now have a third—count ‘em—iPod, cementing my status as an iPod and gadget geek. To be fair though, my latest iPod , an iPod touch, was a reward for a hellacious project at work, and we all earned that reward, and then some.

The iPod Touch (in this case the 16 gig model) is essentially an iPhone—that ultra-hyped greatest-invention-since-sliced-bread phenomenon of the summer of 2007—minus the phone. Instead of the ubiquitous iPod click wheel control, every function is controlled by…you peeked…touching icons on the screen.

That screen also happens to be pretty much the entire face of the device, as opposed to occupying roughly the top half of an iPod in the case of the Nano and iPod Video/Classic, and looks to me to be roughly comparable to a PlayStation Portable screen. It’s a vivid screen to be sure—videos and photos look crisp and clear, and even the relatively small icons on the Touch’s home screen are easy to read.

Music
At its core, of course, an iPod is for most people about playing music, and on that count the iPod touch is not dramatically different from any other version to have come down the pike. Though the (current) maximum 16 gig size isn’t as impressive as the 30 or 80 gigs of an iPod video, it’s ample storage for several thousand songs.

The big change in using the iPod touch is the interfaces to get to your songs and playlists look a little different than in previous models, but they’re still intuitive and follow the idea of menu screens sliding away to the left to dive deeper into a sub-menu. The functions you can access—selecting playlists, albums, artists, etc, are all there, though the Touch adds some graphic elements like thumbnails of album covers that you can select that will then spin around to show the songs from that album, rather than having to click into another sub-menu to see the songs.

The Touch also incorporates one of the newer iTunes music browsing features, the juke-box like display of album covers to scroll through your music library. By turning the Touch on its side, it automatically brings up this function, and you can drag your fingers back and forth to flip through your songs. It’s a nice touch when you’re focused on picking specific songs, though I tend to pick my playlist, drop my iPod in my pocket and let it play, so I doubt I’ll use this feature too often.

Video
Watching videos on the Touch is bit different than the iPod Video or Nano in that you have to turn the device sideways and you get the option of watching your program in widescreen format or a more traditional ‘box’ format. Honestly, for any video made in the widescreen format, I’d always pick that way to watch, but to each their own.

I’ve watched plenty of video on my iPod Video, and obviously there’s more detail to see on the slightly larger iPod Touch screen size. For longer viewing sessions, I can see this being an advantage. Most days, I use my iPod Video on a train ride to or from the office, so when I watch a video it’s typically for a half hour or less, sometimes just a few minutes to catch a music video, although I have watched back-to-back shows for several hours (painful memories of a significantly-delayed airplane flight) and felt that screen was fine even for longer viewing sessions.

Where the iPod Touch may provide a more noticeable benefit is with movies. Now that Apple is offering movie rentals—as opposed to $14 purchases only—I could see paying the couple of dollars to rent a movie that I considered “brain candy” to watch on a longer train ride. I’d even shell out the dollars if it was a movie I already own, if it’s one I really like and would pass the time on a trip.

Photos
Here’s one place the iPod Touch stands out a bit from the other iPods. As with other models, you can scroll through your pictures (perfect for, say, a proud new dad showing off his baby boy), but you also can zoom in on a photo using the touch screen, and you can then save that zoomed image as your Touch’s home (or startup) screen that displays when you turn it on. (You don’t have to zoom in to save an image, but the fact that you can essentially crop just the part of the photo you’d like to be your electronic wallpaper is cool.)

I would point out again though that the Touches come with less memory space than comparable iPod Video/Classics, so if you’re planning to turn your Touch into a portable photo album, your space for music and videos is diminished.

Wi-Fi Applications
Note: As I understand it, newer iTouches come with an upgraded software package that includes applications not necessarily available pre-loaded in older models. However, Apple offers a $20 download of the new software with those applications. My comments will be about the full range of applications; if you purchase an older item from inventory, you may need to upgrade to get some of the applications.

The iPod Touch may not have a phone, but without a doubt it can keep you in touch with the world. The so-called Wi Fi applications on the Touch are what turns this gizmo into an iPod on growth hormones. From checking e-mail to weather in cities worldwide to full-color Web surfing (oh, and let’s not forget being able to download iTunes songs…something Steve Jobs is sure to want you to remember).

The key to taking advantage of any of these applications is finding a free wi-fi zone, which is not always that easy. Sure, many coffee shops and cafes offer free hotspots, but with an increasing trend towards charging for wi-fi, you might find yourself searching for a Starbucks to be able to use some of these tools on the go.

-E-mail: I already have a Crackber…er, Blackberry, for the office, but what about checking my personal e-mail? With the iPod Touch, I set up access to my personal e-mail in a matter of minutes. Yahoo, AOL and Gmail applications are pre-loaded in the Touch, so that all you need to do on the device itself is enter your personal information. (However, Gmail does require you to enable wireless access to your account from a PC before it will work on the Touch.) For a different ISP e-mail, you’ll need to know your mail server information, so you may need to do some digging to get the data you’ll need to input. In my case, I ran a search in a help form on my ISP’s site and got the answer with step-by-step directions in seconds.

Once your mail is set up (you can have multiple accounts), you can read full-color, full-text e-mail from your inbox as well as send and delete messages.

-Weather: Because I’ll be traveling between a couple of cities more often, I set up the iPod Touch’s weather feature to load the forecast data for those areas (plus Honolulu, just because I always wish I was there). Then I just tap on the weather icon, and use my finger to switch screens between the cities’ forecasts.

-Stocks: I’m not a big trader, so I won’t be adding many stock symbols to this iPod Touch application, but I did add my own company’s symbol so I know if we’re doing well of not when I’m on the run. You can track the Dow Jones or Nasdaq markets and specific stocks (what a surprise, Apple is one of the pre-loaded stock symbols). Interesting, but not something I will get much use from.

-Safari (Internet): Now this is cool. Using the iPod Touch Web browser, you can see full versions of any Web site, not just the ‘mobile’ versions commonly accessed through many cell phones. There is a downside though—as more and more Web sites cram more and more tiny print on their sites, it can be tough to see what’s actually on a page and navigate it. Still, for common applications like Google, it’s just like being at home and using it…well, except for the whole typing-on-the-screen thing.

-Maps: It’s not quite as precise as GPS, but when you’re in a wi-fi zone, the Google Maps feature can roughly identify your location and provide maps and directions to get you where you want to go as if you were using Google Maps at home. (I suppose you just have to hope you don’t stray out of a wi-fi area and find yourself in need of more directions.) In an unfamiliar area, this can be a quick way to get your bearings and get on your way.

-iTunes Mobile: Come on, you didn’t think they’d pass up a chance to get that 99 cents our of you, did you? Indeed, you no longer need to download your favorite tune at home and then transfer it to your iPod. There’s a mobile version of the iTunes store at your fingertips (literally), with what looks to be to be a wide range of the genres and songs you would find on the regular iTunes site. By logging in with your existing iTunes account information, you can click to buy a song wirelessly (but don’t move out of your wi-fi hotspot until it’s done!) and have it for your listening pleasure right away. Presumably this is especially handy if you travel often or don’t want to sync your iPod and hard-drive music library regularly.

Use of the Touch Controls
In some ways, the iPod Touch represents a natural evolution of the iPod, since the click wheel control on other models has a certain “touch” control element to it, responding to circular motions to perform certain functions. My fingers are average sized, and I find no problems selecting the icons to activate features on the Touch, but do find using the on-screen keyboard for entering data difficult to use. When I need to enter data for fields like an e-mail address, I frequently end up with a wrong letter while trying to select the virtual keys (the display resembles a traditional QWERTY keyboard, just touch activated on the screen). I haven’t tried using a stylus yet, but have considered buying a spare Nintendo DS pointer to use on the Touch’s screen.

With other touch-activated controls, such as going ‘back’ through a menu sequence, I sometimes find it difficult to hit the small icon representing where I should touch, but those have been minor annoyances (and unlike a mis-entered e-mail address, don’t really cause a hassle and wasted effort).

When you power up the Touch, the wi-fi application icons occupy the top 3/4 of the screen, while music, videos, photos and the mobile iTunes application are in a special row at the bottom of the home screen. You can move the icons for the extra applications around to make the order more to your liking, which is a nice customization feature.

Other Random Thoughts
1-Buy a screen protector at the least; preferably a protective case. Seriously. Consider carrying something like this in your pocket or a briefcase/purse—that screen will get scratched up in no time, and iPods are notorious for the backs being a virtual scratch magnet.

2-Actually using the wi-fi features, photo displays, etc., will suck up the juice in your batteries faster than Lindsay Lohan can down a bottle of vodka. If you’re going to be away for a while, have a charger with you.

3-Why doesn’t the built-in calculator function have a one-key percentage feature?

4-Why didn’t Apple make this compatible with the iPod radio remote? Surely the screen could accommodate the digital readout.

5-Steve Jobs’ fortune isn’t in selling gadgets or songs. It’s in plastics. Specifically those little docking station inserts. Think about it—each new model of iPod needs a different insert it seems to be able to be placed in a docking station, and with the exploding number of devices that have iPod docks in addition to the one attached to your computer, they can make a fortune selling those little things.

The Verdict
I never look a gift horse in the mouth (where did that saying come from, anyway?), and as a gadget geek it was a reward right up my alley. Honestly, I expect I’ll use my iPod Video more often because I can use the radio/remote application, and it’s easier to manage a clickwheel control when I have an iPod in my pocket. Not that I won’t use the iPod Touch—in fact, on some of my longer business trips, I probably will use it regularly.

If it were my money, I wouldn’t put it into the iPod Touch just yet, given the smaller song capacity. Cool features are nice, but for me it’s like a new version of my old faithful Walkman (you young whippersnappers can look up a Walkman under “ancient history” in your Wikipedia)—a reliable, easy way to enjoy my music when I’m commuting or doing monotonous yardwork. However, you have to be the judge of what’s worth your investment, and I do believe you’ll be happy with the quality of the iPod Touch if you purchase it.